Director Ford and his regular camera man Joseph August, who had worked on many Hollywood features with Ford, were assigned to Midway Island in 1942 to document, for the Navy, the work of guerrillas and resistance fighters in the Pacific. Two days before the battle of Midway, he learned that the Japanese were about to attack the base and he and his cameramen had to scramble to get as much footage as they could. Ford and August were both wounded by enemy fire while filming the battle.